Grant Application - Sentinel Grid

Community Grants Applications
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Hey ZCash community,

We just submitted our application for Sentinel Grid, and we’re excited to share it with you!

What Sentinel Grid is:

Sentinel Grid is a resilience intelligence platform built by Monza Tech. It monitors and models critical infrastructure systems—like electrical grids, telecom networks, data centers, cloud infrastructure, mobility systems, and industrial IoT. The platform detects abnormal behavior, predicts cascading failures, simulates stress scenarios, and allows secure, privacy-preserving sharing of system state and incident reporting.

Functionally, it builds a dependency graph of infrastructure assets, uses statistical anomaly detection and system-behavior modeling to spot failure risks before they propagate, and runs scenario-based simulations (overload, cyberattacks, voltage collapse, frequency drift, transformer overheating, cross-region cascade effects). Optionally, it can publish integrity proofs or event commitments to decentralized networks (like Wormhole, Aptos, or Ocean Protocol) for auditability without exposing raw operational data.

Why ZCash is great for us:

The ZCash ecosystem values privacy and security—exactly what Sentinel Grid is built around. Integrating privacy-preserving proofs with ZCash could help us ensure data integrity without exposing sensitive operational details.

Why we’re great for ZCash:

Sentinel Grid can increase adoption of privacy-respecting infrastructure telemetry and verifiable state reporting, making decentralized networks stronger, more resilient, and more trustworthy.

MVP Demo:

We have a public-facing Streamlit demo with live sensor simulations, anomaly detection charts, system alerts, incident logs, scenario triggers for overload/heat/voltage/frequency stress cases, and a mock “publish to chain” function:

Funding:

We’re requesting $45,000 to continue development, integrate with decentralized proofs, and prepare pilot deployments with utilities, microgrids, and industrial operators.

Grant Application:

We’re looking forward to feedback, questions, and support from the community. Let’s make something that strengthens both critical infrastructure and privacy-focused networks!

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I like the idea of making critical infrastructure more resilient and I can see how privacy-preserving proofs can fit well with Zcash values

One thing I’m curious about is how tightly this would be connected to the Zcash ecosystem in practice

  • will you run or monitor Zcash-related infrastructure directly
  • or is Zcash mainly one of several chains where you might publish commitments

And i have a personal opinion i dont know if my thinking is correct but when you make a website with LLM sometimes the AI puts a lot of emojis i see a lot of projects that are made with LLM and have many emojis and also i think that if you are in the development of a website normally you dont use so many emojis if you didnt use AI maybe you can also check this because there are a lot of emojis and it makes the interface look a bit less professional this is just my opinion and i say it in a good way because i think if you change that your project can look even more professional

1 Like
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Hi Emilio!

On the connection to Zcash: Sentinel Grid does not run or monitor Zcash infrastructure directly. Our core product is an AI-driven resilience and anomaly detection platform for critical infrastructure operators (utilities, telecom networks, data centers, industrial IoT). Zcash fits into the architecture in a specific and optional way: when the system validates telemetry or detects an event, we generate a compact cryptographic commitment. These commitments can be published to a privacy-preserving ledger. Zcash is one of the best candidates for that because integrity proofs can be published without revealing any operational data. In other words, the system state is verified locally, but the “proof of validation” can be anchored in Zcash without leaking anything about the underlying infrastructure.

So Zcash is not just one more chain in a long list. It is one of the few environments aligned with the privacy and confidentiality requirements of critical infrastructure. If the community prefers a particular commitment format or workflow, we can design the adapter around that.

Regarding the UI, you’re absolutely right, we’ve been working on a new version that hopefully will be online today. As soon as we have it up I will share with everyone here.

Again, thanks for your questions and feeback! Really appreciate it

1 Like
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Quick update from our side:

We’ve made a lot of progress since the first MVP. Last week we had a call with the Griffiss Institute (Air Force/AFRL) and they invited us into the HUSTLE Defense Accelerator. Because of this, we now have to limit access to the demo it’s only available on request and under NDA. It’s not meant to restrict the community, it’s just part of the rules when working on critical infrastructure and defense-related topics.

We’re sharing an updated whitepaper here. It explains clearly how Sentinel Grid works and how the Zcash proof-layer fits in (commitments for integrity verification without exposing any operational data).

Other updates:

  • We’re advancing with the Qatar Science & Technology Park program.
  • We have calls coming up with DHS S&T and other government innovation groups.
  • Private demos with utilities and infrastructure operators are also being scheduled.

Once we have a redacted version of the demo that we’re allowed to publish, we’ll share it again. In the meantime, if anyone from the Zcash community wants access under NDA, just send me a message.

PUBLIC WHITEPAPER V1.PDF (181.2 KB)

6

Interesting use case, but how does this benefit or help zcash directly?

1 Like
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Good question (gonna try to explain it the best I can). the value for Zcash isn’t in running infrastructure itself, but in bringing a real-world, high-stakes use case to Zcash’s privacy layer.

Sentinel Grid generates integrity commitments when it validates infrastructure telemetry or detects an incident. These commitments need to be anchored somewhere that guarantees:

A strong privacy (no operational data leaked), long-term stability, resistance to censorship and a predictable, transparent cryptographic model.

Most chains aren’t suitable because they either expose too much metadata or they require publishing more information than operators can legally share. Zcash is one of the very few ecosystems where we can anchor these proofs without revealing anything sensitive.

In other words, Sentinel Grid brings a real operational use case to Zcash: verifiable state reporting from critical infrastructure, with privacy preserved. This strengthens Zcash by adding a concrete utility case beyond payments, and positions it as a trusted environment for integrity proofs in national-infrastructure and industrial settings.

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can explain.

Best,

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Screenshot 2025-11-21 at 12.29.17 AM
Screenshot 2025-11-21 at 12.29.17 AM1920×1063 352 KB

What do you guys think of this UI?

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Thank you for your submission. After consideration from ZCG and sufficient time for the community to provide feedback on the forum, the committee has decided to reject this proposal.

The committee appreciates your grant submission efforts and encourages you to continue as an active member of the Zcash community going forward!

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Thanks for the consideration!